Rewrite right for Miramax

Mini major falls in love with Kessler's reconstructed 'Keith'

Todd Kessler, creator of kiddie sleuth show “Blues Clues,” refused to read the clues when Miramax tossed his script “Keith” into turnaround. Kessler rewrote the project from scratch and, in a highly unusual move, Miramax bought it back. Kessler will direct.

“Keith” began as a Ron Carlson short story about a 17-year-old girl who finds her meticulously planned-out life is being deconstructed by a young man.

Kessler and Rebecca Goldstein set up the project at Miramax right after they formed their No Hands banner to make films for teens. The studio felt it missed the mark; Kessler took the rejection as constructive criticism.

“I rewrote it a number of times and made it better, but I expected them to just give the script a second look as a formality that is a standard turnaround clause,” he said. “They fell in love with it and bought it back.”

New deal was made by Miramax production co-prexy Meryl Poster, who’ll shepherd the project with Heidi Herman. No Hands will be a producer.